2012 World Juniors Day 2

by Joy Kamani

Stories by Jim Spier, Photos by Joy Kamani

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Morning Session

400m - Women - Round 1
 The world junior leader,  Ashley Spencer (Illinois), strolled through an easy win in her heat, running 52.58.  She was the fastest qualifier overall.  Kadecia Baird (Medgar Evers, Brooklyn, NY/Guyana) was runner up in her heat, running 53.29 and advancing to the semis.  Erika Rucker (South Carolina) led from the start and had a sold win at 53.33, easily advancing.

Triple Jump  - Women  - Qualifying
Only Ciarra Brewer (Florida) advanced, jumping 43-0.25 and finishing 9th overall.   Jennifer Madu (East,  Plano, TX), who advanced in the 100 meters yesterday, jumped 41-9.75 and did not qualify for the final.  Six women attained the auto qualifying mark of 43-7.75, led by Lithuanian Dovile Dzindzaletaite at 45-5.25w.

Shot Put - Men - Qualifying
Stephen Mozia (Cornell) got an auto qualifier in round 2, throwing 65-0 with the 6kg ball.  (He threw 66-3.25 in winning the US Junior champs).  Nicholas Scarvelis (UCLA), second at the USATF Juniors at 63-6.75, finished 19th at 61-2.75.  The incomparable Jacko Gill (New Zealand) led all competitors with a throw of 70-6.5

400m Hurdles - Men - Qualifying
 Eric Futch (Penn Wood, Lansdowne, PA) appeared to be in trouble during the first half of the race, running in 4th or 5th through 200 meters.  Then it seemed that a different person appeared from 200 meters on, as Futch went on to win in a relatively fast 51.82.  Greg Coleman (Texas A+M) looked very strong, running the fastest time of the day, 50.95. It was also a PR, the former being 51.01 run while finishing fourth at the Big 12 meet in May.

800m - Women - Semifinals
Ajee Wilson's (Neptune, NJ) showed that she had been on this stage before, displaying uncanny racing maturity.  Running totally under control, she cruised to an automatic qualifier in her heat, finishing second in 2:02.43, a lifetime best.  Her prior best was 2:02.61, run at the adidas Grand Prix in June.  Danielle Aragon performed well in her first world championships.  In the back of the pack for much of the race, she came on strong at the end, running a PR of 2:04.19.  The overall leaders are the two "Brits", Jessica Judd (2:02.30) and Emily Dudgeon (2;02.32), with .88 separating first from eighth.

Evening Session

110m Hurdles - Men - Semifinals
Dondre Echols (Potomac, Oxon Hill, MD) maintained his form throughout to finish a strong second, qualifying in 13.71 [-0.8].  Josh Thompson (Pittsburgh) managed fourth in his heat and missed making the final by one place, based on time.  The class of the field was World Junior Leader Yordan O'Farrill of Cuba, running 13.28.  Wilhem Belocian of France set a National Junior record in winning his heat in 13.30.

100m - Women - Semifinals
In a bit of a surprise, Dezerea Bryant did not advance.  She was third in 11.77 [-2.6], the same time as runnerup Khamica Bingham (Canada), but not fast enough to advance as a time qualifier.  That heat was won by World Junior leader Anthonique Strachan (Bahamas) who seemed to jog to an 11.69.  The only medal hope left was Jennifer Madu (East, Plano, TX), the 2011 World Youth Champion in this event.  Known as an extremely tough competitor, she led through 80 meters before being passed by two competitors and finishing in 11.49, the fastest time qualifier.

100m - Men - Semifinals
Tyreek Hill (Coffee County, Douglas, GA) got a serious challenge from Jamaican Jazeel Murphy as both ran 10.25 [-1.2] with Hill the victor.  World junior leader Adam Gemili (Great Britain) looks to be the class of the field as he won semi 2 in 10.18 [-0.5].  Aaron Ernest (LSU) won his heat in 10.21 [+1.3], winning by over .2.  The U.S. has a shot at two medals.

High Jump - Men - Qualifying
Trey Mc Rae (UNC-Charlotte) jumped 6-8.75, and Dartis Willis (Stanford) 6-10.75.  Neither advanced.

400m - Men - Semifinals
 Luquelin Santos (Dominican Republic) looked more like the 44-point runner we had read about. He easily won the first semi in 45.98. Arman Hall (Aquinas, Fort Lauderdale, FL), the 2011 World Youth Champion) ran an even race to win semi 2 in 46.42. Aldrich Bailey (Timberview, Mansfield, TX) started off well, but seemed to lose his form around the second turn where ihe was second to the Kenyan Mweresa.  He regained his composure and finished with a strong win in 45.79.  It will be quite a race between he and Santos in the final.  As mentioned yesterday, Bailey and Santos went 1-2 in last year's Caribbean Scholastic Invitational.
In a bit of twist, there was a special runoff later in the meet.  The Kenyan, Alpha Kishoyian, was not ready for the start of his semi final heat.  Off to a horrendous start, he finished last.  It was determined that it was the starter's fault.  As such, he was allowed another chance to qualify.  He was to run solo and, if he beat the 8th place time from the semis (46.49), he would be allowed to run in lane 9 in what would have normally been an 8 man final.  With the crowd's support, running in lane 4, and ran 46.46, making it into the final.

Long Jump Men- Final
Jarrion Lawson (Liberty Eylau, Texarkana, TX), moved from third to second, then back to third, all in the final round, jumping 25-0.75 [0.1].  Andreas Trajkovski (Denmark) knocked Lawson out of second place on his final jump, leaping 25-8.  The leader was the Russian Sergey Morgunov who got the winning jump on his first attempt (26-6.5).  He only had one other legal jump after fouling four times.

Javelin - Women - Final
Haley Crouser (Gresham, OR) fouled on her first two attempts, then threw 161-6.  It was not good enough to make the final 8.  In a great competition for the medals, Sofi Flinck of Sweden went from third to first on her final attempt, throwing a world junior lead of 201-5.  Flinck, born July 8, 1995, turned 17 last week!

5000m - Women - Final
 Newcomer Cayla Hatton (Phillips, Andover, MA) had the best finish ever by an American in this meet, finishing fourth and just missing the US High School record.   She passed 3000m in about 9:39 and finished in 15:50.32.  She is now #2 all-time high school and #7 all-time US Junior.  Allison Woodward (Oregon) also ran well, running 16:08.29 for 8th.  That's #2 on this year's US Junior list, and #17 all-time.  The winner was Buze Diriba of Ethiopia in 15:32.94.

Shot Put - Men - Final
What a competition!  Jacko Gill (New Zealand) opened with a meet record of 71-4.  Krzysztof Brzozowski (Poland) responded with 71-5.5.  In round two, Gill upped it to 72-9.75!  Three rounds later, Gill added a quarter inch to 72-10, winning and defending his 2010 championship. Stephen Mozia (Cornell), the U.S. Junior Champion at 66-3.25, finished 10th in 63-9.75.

100m - Women - Final
Anthonique Strachan (Bahamas) increased her world junior lead, running 11.20 for the win.  Jennifer Madu (East, Plano, TX) did not start especially well and could never quite catch up to the leaders finishing fifth in 11.52.  This is the first time the U.S. had not medaled in this event since 2000.

100m - Men - Final
 Adam Gemeli (Great Britain), with only one year of experience in track and field, got the meet record and = #7 all-time with a dominant 10.05 win.  Aaron Ernest (LSU) was an impressive second in 10.17, and Tyreek Hill (Coffee County, Douglas, GA) was edged for third by Odean Skeen of of Jamaica, 10.28 to 10.29.

Decathlon - Men - Final
No American has ever finished better than 8th at this meet.  Gunnar Nixon, who needed to beat Jake Stein by 14 seconds in the 1500 meters (the final event), did so - and then some.  It was the first medal of the competition for the Americans, and a gold at that.  He scored 8018 points which is also the American Junior Record, breaking the record set last year by his U of Arkansas teammate Kevin Lazas by 2 points.  Nixon is two time New Balance Indoor Nationals pentathlon champ (having beaten Lazas in that event 2010).

 


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